Moet ik mijn prijzen inclusief of exclusief btw tonen

Voor consumenten toont u altijd de prijs inclusief btw, duidelijk en op dezelfde plek op elke pagina. Verkoopt u ook aan bedrijven, geef dan beide bedragen weer, met een duidelijke aanduiding welke van de twee de klant ziet bij het afrekenen. Verwarring hierover leidt tot een winkelmandje dat wordt verlaten.

Wat is het minimum dat in mijn retourbeleid moet staan

Vermeld het aantal dagen bedenktijd, wie de retourverzending betaalt, hoe de klant een retour aanmeldt, en binnen hoeveel dagen het geld wordt teruggestort. Zet dit kort samengevat op de productpagina en volledig op een aparte pagina, zonder onnodig juridisch taalgebruik.

Heeft schema.org echt invloed op of ik gevonden word

Het is geen garantie voor een hogere positie, maar het maakt uw gegevens leesbaar voor zoekmachines en AI-assistenten. Zonder deze markering moet een systeem gokken naar prijs en voorraad, en dat kost u zichtbaarheid ten opzichte van een shop die dezelfde informatie wel machineleesbaar aanbiedt.

Knowledge base

What must appear on a webshop website

A webshop only gains trust and visibility when price, stock, and return policy are clearly and machine-readable on the site.

Why a customer hesitates just before checkout

A customer who reaches the shopping cart and then abandons it usually hesitates over one of three things: is the price correct, is the product in stock, and what if it doesn't suit me. These are not minor matters. These are the three questions your entire website must answer on every product page, again and again.

Many webshops only show the price after selecting a variant, or display a from-price without explaining where it comes from. That breeds suspicion. Show the current price immediately, including VAT, and show what changes with a different size or colour.

Stock information is often forgotten or outdated. In stock without a quantity says little; only 2 in stock is more convincing, provided it's accurate. A customer with two webshops open side by side will choose the shop that is certain it can deliver.

Return policy is too often hidden in the terms and conditions. Put the key details right on the product page: how many days, who pays for return shipping, and how long until refund. That saves customer service questions and prevents abandonment.

What information customers miss on product pages

Customers increasingly search with a specific question: will this size fit me, can it be delivered by Thursday, can I return it for free. A product description that only describes the product misses those questions. Answer them literally, in plain language, close to the buy button.

Delivery time is another frequently missed element. Not everyone wants the same information: one person wants to order today and receive tomorrow, another is planning for a birthday three weeks away. Provide a realistic estimate per postcode area or delivery method, and be honest if something takes longer due to a supplier.

Sizing, material, warranty: these kinds of details often determine the purchase decision more than the price itself. A size chart that matches actual production, not a generic standard, prevents returns and disappointment.

With a webshop too, trust is partly a matter of having basic information in order, just as we explain in what must appear on a plumber's website: a customer wants to know who they are dealing with, even if it's a package rather than a service.

What an AI assistant needs to mention your shop

When someone asks an AI assistant where they can get a particular product fastest, or which webshop has a smooth return policy, that assistant is looking for structure, not beautiful text. It needs data it can read: price, currency, stock status, return period.

For this there is a standardized markup called schema.org, with the type OnlineStore for a webshop. This is not a design, but an invisible layer of code behind your page that tells: this is a shop, this is what it sells, this is what it costs, and this is the stock. Without that markup, an assistant has to guess, and then your shop is skipped in favour of a competitor who makes it clear.

This principle is not unique to webshops. For a service provider the same problem applies, as can be read in [AI findability for an electrician](/findability/ai-findability-for-an-electrician): an assistant must be able to read facts, not infer them from atmospheric sentences.

It's not about tricks to score higher. It's about the same information your customer is already looking for, only in a form that a machine can also understand. Price, stock and return policy happen to also be exactly the three things such a schema can most easily contain.

How to make price, stock and return policy visible

Always place the price in the same location on every page, in the same format. Do not switch between including and excluding VAT without mentioning it. A customer who is uncertain about the correct price is more likely to close the tab than to ask a question.

For stock: current is more important than precise. A counter that runs in real time with the till is nice, but a daily update that is accurate is better than a counter that is never correct. Also state what happens when placing a reorder: when will it be back in stock.

The return policy deserves its own short page, with a summary on every product page as well. Avoid legal language. Write what the customer wants to know: how many days to change their mind, who arranges the return label, when will the money be back in their account.

Combine these three with clear contact details and a real address, even if you only sell online. A customer and an assistant trust a shop that demonstrably exists sooner than a shop that only shows an order button.

What a web shop can learn from other branches

It seems as though a web shop has nothing in common with a tradesperson who comes to your home, but the core is the same: the customer wants to know what it costs, whether it is available, and what happens if something goes wrong. With a plumber that is called a call-out fee and a warranty period, with a web shop a price and a return period.

The way people search nowadays is also shifting. More and more people no longer type a search word, but ask a question to an assistant, as described in how customers search for a plumber via an AI assistant. For a web shop, this means that questions such as which shop supplies this brand quickly are answered based on the same type of structured data.

Errors that frequently occur in other branches are also recognisable here: outdated information, a contact page without a telephone number, no clear answer to the most frequently asked question. Such basic errors cost more customers than a missed advertisement ever would.

The comparison mainly shows that findability is not a matter of tricks per branch, but of doing the same three things right: clear, up-to-date, and readable for both humans and machines.

What you can start with tomorrow

Do not start with everything at once. Choose one product page and check that the price, stock and return policy are clearly shown on it, without the customer having to search or click to another page.

Then ask someone outside your company to answer three simple questions based on your site alone: what does it cost, is it in stock, can I return it. If that person has to search or guess, the same applies to an assistant and to a real customer.

Then check whether your web shop system already supplies an OnlineStore schema. Many platforms do this in part, but the stock or return fields are often missing. This is usually possible to resolve with limited technical knowledge, or with help from someone who does this every day.

Repeat this check a few times a year, especially after a system change or a new website layer. Information that was once correct becomes outdated silently, and a customer or assistant who encounters an error once is unlikely to come back to try again.

Frequently asked questions

Should I show my prices including or excluding VAT

For consumers, you always show the price including VAT, clearly and in the same location on every page. If you also sell to businesses, show both amounts, with a clear indication which of the two the customer sees at checkout. Confusion about this leads to a shopping basket being abandoned.

What is the minimum that must be in my return policy

State the number of days to change your mind, who pays for the return shipment, how the customer reports a return, and within how many days the money will be refunded. Put this briefly summarised on the product page and in full on a separate page, without unnecessary legal language.

Does schema.org really influence whether I am found

It is not a guarantee of a higher position, but it makes your data readable for search engines and AI assistants. Without this markup, a system must guess at price and inventory, and that costs you visibility compared to a shop that does offer the same information in machine-readable form.

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